Executive Coaching Benefits: 6 Ways An Executive Coach Can Make You More Successful

In 6 Ways An Executive Coach Can Make You More Successful, Erika Andersen highlights executive coaching benefits: leadership growth, career success, and personal effectiveness. Originally published by Forbes on November 20, 2017, the article explains why coaching has become a common leadership-development tool and outlines six benefits leaders can expect when they fully engage in the process.

The article’s core message is that coaching works best when two conditions are present: the coach is skilled, and the leader is genuinely coachable. Andersen emphasizes that coaching is not a passive benefit; it requires openness, humility, curiosity, and a willingness to practice new behaviors.

Overarching Theme

Executive coaching helps leaders become more successful by improving self-awareness, sharpening their understanding of others, expanding their leadership toolkit, strengthening relationships, and helping them achieve meaningful professional goals.

Major Takeaways

1. Coaching helps leaders see themselves more clearly.
Andersen argues that leaders often have incomplete or inaccurate views of their own strengths, blind spots, and impact. A good coach gathers feedback, identifies patterns, and helps leaders build the habit of objective self-reflection.

2. Coaching improves how leaders see others.
Leaders can make costly talent and political mistakes when they misread people around them. Coaches can help leaders assess employees, peers, and stakeholders more accurately, which supports better delegation, retention, influence, and decision-making.

3. Coaching teaches new ways to respond.
What made someone successful earlier in their career may not work at more senior levels. Coaching helps leaders replace outdated habits with new behaviors suited to broader responsibility, team leadership, and enterprise-level impact.

4. Coaching helps leaders leverage existing strengths.
Some leaders undervalue their best capabilities because those strengths feel natural to them. A coach can help leaders recognize, name, and intentionally apply those strengths for greater organizational value.

5. Coaching builds more productive relationships.
Andersen notes that leaders often form strong relationships with people who are similar to them while struggling with those who differ in background, style, beliefs, or approach. Coaching can help leaders question assumptions and build broader, more effective working relationships.

6. Coaching helps leaders achieve what they want.
At its best, coaching clarifies goals, provides neutral support, teaches new skills, and helps leaders notice which behaviors are moving them toward or away from their desired outcomes.

Talking Points for Business Leaders

How do we define “coachability” for our leaders?

Are our executives receiving honest feedback early enough to change behavior before problems become visible?

Where are our leaders relying on habits that worked in the past but no longer fit the role they now occupy?

Are we helping leaders identify and scale their strengths, or are we focusing only on weaknesses?

How well do our leaders build productive relationships across differences in style, background, function, and perspective?

What business outcomes should coaching support: succession readiness, stronger teams, better retention, faster decision-making, or improved executive presence?

Reflection Questions

Where might I have an inaccurate view of my own leadership impact?

Which relationships at work do I avoid, undervalue, or misunderstand?

What skill helped me get to my current role but may be limiting me at the next level?

Which strengths do I take for granted that could be used more intentionally?

Am I approaching coaching as a development opportunity or as a status symbol?

What would I need to change to become more coachable?

Potential Action Items

Create a simple coaching-readiness checklist for executives before investing in a coach.

Use 360-degree feedback or structured stakeholder interviews at the beginning of coaching engagements.

Ask each coached leader to identify one outdated leadership habit to replace with a more effective behavior.

Build coaching goals around measurable leadership outcomes, such as stronger delegation, improved stakeholder trust, better team alignment, or clearer strategic communication.

Train executives to identify and leverage their signature strengths, not just correct deficiencies.

Review coaching progress at defined intervals while protecting appropriate confidentiality between coach and client.